Japan pledges over $470mn to remedy Fukushima nuclear crisis

An aerial view shows Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO)'s tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and its contaminated water storage tanks (bottom) in Fukushima, in this photo taken by Kyodo August 20, 2013.(Reuters / Kyodo) / Reuters

Japan is to spend US$473 million to contain leaks of radioactive water from the disaster-struck Fukushima nuclear plant, as the government struggles to tackle the nuclear crisis.

The government is to spend "tens of billions" of yen to
deal with the water crisis after the beleaguered operator of the
plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), stated it discovered
another radiation center, Trade and Economy Minister Toshimitsu
Motegi said in a televised interview. "Tokyo Electric has been
playing a game of whack-a-mole with problems at the site."

A package of new measures on how to deal with the ongoing crisis
at the Fukushima plant, which was besieged by a massive
earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, are set to be announced on
Tuesday.

The total amount pledged is set at 47 billion yen ($473 million),
according to Japanese media.

The package includes the construction of a massive underground
wall worth US$320,000 to contain groundwater flows. The building
of the wall will entail freezing a perimeter of earth around the
damaged reactors to stop the groundwater mixing with water being
used to cool the melted fuel rods.

Another US$150,000 will be spent on a new system that would
dramatically decrease radiation levels in the contaminated water.

Japan’s government faces criticism over how TEPCO dealt with the
crisis as it awaits Saturday’s decision by the International
Olympic Committee on Tokyo's bid to host the 2020 summer
Olympics.

Just on Saturday several new hotspots reading potentially lethal doses of
radiation have been detected near the tanks storing the
radioactive water, forcing TEPCO to admit there might be even
more leaks at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The operator said that the radiation levels of 1,800
millisieverts per hour near a leaking tank holding contaminated
water was 18-times worse than previously believed - a level that
could prove fatal within four hours of exposure.

On Monday, TEPCO announced that it might have to dump
contaminated cooling water from the plant into the Pacific, local
media reported.

The operator is proposing a controlled discharge after the
toxicity is brought within legal limits.

But, just last week the plant operator disclosed that at least
one of the 1,060 temporary tanks used to store highly
contaminated water sprang a leak discharging as much as 300 tons
of radioactive liquid containing large amounts of cesium.

Following the incident Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority
raised the rating of the water leak to Level 3 – a "serious
incident" on an international scale of radioactivity from the
previously assigned Level 1, an “anomaly.”